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May Martinez, the mother of Colleen Slemmer, traveled to Tennessee to witness Christa Pike’s scheduled execution on September 30, 2026. After the lethal-injection attempt was halted, Martinez told the Associated Press: “I didn’t get justice for my daughter.” AP reported that Pike received two doses of pentobarbital but continued breathing and making sounds witnesses described as snoring. The cause of the failed attempt had not been established in reporting available October 3.
What happened during Christa Pike’s execution attempt?
Tennessee had scheduled Pike’s execution for September 30, 2026, under a state Supreme Court order issued a year earlier. The attempt took place at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville. According to the Associated Press’s minute-by-minute account, the viewing curtain opened at 7:27 p.m. Pike was strapped to a gurney with a spiritual adviser beside her and said her arm hurt.
AP reported that the execution team administered two doses of pentobarbital under the state protocol. Pike continued breathing and made sounds witnesses described as snoring. She was later transported by ambulance to an off-site medical facility.
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Martinez, who traveled from Florida with her husband, told AP she watched the attempt. “She was moving her head, moving her feet. She was trying to sit up,” she said. “Didn’t work the first time they gave her a shot. It didn’t work the second time so she’s in the hospital and alive.” Martinez added: “This isn’t justice for Colleen.”
What did Colleen Slemmer’s mother say before the attempt?
Before the scheduled execution, Martinez told WBIR, as reported by The Washington Post: “I want Colleen to be at rest, without having constant reminders.” After the attempt, her comments to AP conveyed the gap between the outcome she had hoped for and what she witnessed.
Why did the lethal injection fail?
The cause was not established in the reporting available by October 3, 2026. The Tennessee Department of Correction said it had followed every step of the state’s established protocol, which it said had been approved by the Attorney General’s Office. The department also said the protocol did not allow additional procedures beyond those carried out.
Pike’s attorneys offered a different account in a court filing reported by AP on October 2. They alleged that the IV lines were improperly placed or veins had blown, and that the pentobarbital may have entered Pike’s body rather than her bloodstream. That is the defense’s allegation, not an independently confirmed finding. The state had not publicly explained what went wrong in the reporting reviewed.
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What was Christa Pike’s condition after the attempt?
In the October 2 AP report, Pike’s attorneys said she was unconscious in a hospital and on a ventilator. That update was attributed to the lawyers’ court filing; the reports available by October 3 did not provide an independently confirmed medical update beyond it.
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What happens next?
The Death Penalty Information Center reported on October 1 that Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee had ordered a third-party review and paused executions for the remainder of 2026. The review’s findings and any future execution schedule were not established in reporting available by October 3.
The date for Pike’s attempted execution had been set by a Tennessee Supreme Court order dated September 30, 2025, subject to further court order. That order set the scheduled date; it does not establish what will happen after the halted attempt.
Quick Recap
Sources and timeline
- Associated Press, October 1, 2026: “How Tennessee’s failed execution of Christa Pike unfolded, minute-by-minute.”
- Tennessee Department of Correction, September 30, 2026: “Media Advisory: Christa Pike #261368.”
- Associated Press, October 2, 2026: “Christa Pike on a ventilator and unconscious after failed Tennessee execution, attorneys say.”
- Death Penalty Information Center, October 1, 2026: “Tennessee Botches Another Execution Despite Earlier Warnings from Attorneys; Christa Pike Was Alive Hours After Attempt Began.”
- The Washington Post, October 1, 2026: “Tennessee halts scheduled executions after inmate survives lethal injection.”
- Tennessee Supreme Court, September 30, 2025: order setting Christa Gail Pike’s execution.
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